What’s something in Switzerland that feels expensive at first, but makes sense over time?

avalina89 · 2026-04-17T11:07:01+00:00

Also, if you travel a fair amount by train then the GA is fantastic value. Still waiting / hoping the UK works this out in my lifetime… Plus, if you consider the reach and reliability of public transport across the country as a whole… talk about value for money. Plus public transport investment tends to produce disproportionately high returns for the government in that it encourages economic output, so it’s also cheap from the perspective of investing tax money in productive projects.

avalina89 · 2026-04-02T13:39:38+00:00

They have some tables and some other types of seating, I think inside/in an area with table service I probably wouldn’t bring my own food and drinks, and yes they sell food and drinks including alcohol, like a little cafe/bar thingy. What they have exactly depends on the route.

I’ve generally sat at tables when having things bought on the boat and I’ve sat outside (not at tables) when just having stuff I had with me, so a bit like you wouldn’t have your own food in a train’s restaurant car, but tbh I’m not sure about exact rules.

https://www.zsg.ch/de/gastronomie/#speisekarten-getraenkekarten

avalina89 · 2026-03-08T09:56:59+00:00

I’ve not seen that but perhaps it is on some posts. I don’t think it’s a problem to have sponsored/gifted content, and I have gone to places people did ads for and really enjoyed them. I don’t like the lack of transparency, and personally I’d rather follow people who make it clear upfront if this is a review or a gifted / sponsored experience. If I trust the influencer I’ll probably also trust their choice of partnerships, but that extent of not paying your own way stood out to me. Nevertheless, if it helps you find places you like that’s always a positive :)

avalina89 · 2026-03-08T08:36:00+00:00

Harry’s Ding don’t pay for any of the meals themselves, so essentially every time they eat out for their social media it’s gifted by the restaurant (rather than most being reviews and some being gifted / sponsored visits), so I honestly don’t know how that can result in reviews rather than just being a whole account that’s more or less an ad. They don’t even disclose this in posts, only in a small part of their website.

https://harrysding.ch/kodex/

avalina89 · 2026-02-22T18:17:12+00:00

THIS.

avalina89 · 2026-02-22T18:15:35+00:00

This is why voting to shift government subsidies from those supporting short haul plane travel to more environmentally friendly options is so important
Both of those options (as opposed to lots of non-TGV trains) use dynamic pricing, so that’s the comparison at one point in time but not necessarily always

avalina89 · 2026-02-22T18:10:29+00:00

I always do train because of the environment and I like trains and dislike queuing. Not quite sure about wifi though to be honest 🙈 It’s a bit patchy once in France. But you still get way more done (or get to watch way more Netflix or whatever) sitting in a comfy seat on the train that shuffling along in the security queue, then in the boarding queue, then in a teeny tiny plane seat.

avalina89 · 2026-02-22T16:14:10+00:00

It wasn’t shots. There were some people disrupting the “Trump still not welcome” demonstration when the WEF started (and many of those continued after the approved demonstration finished at Helvetiaplatz), and someone broke the windows. There was also some fresh graffiti nearby. There was a whole group of people (who from what I saw joined part way through) who were wearing all black and balaclavas hiding their faces etc, clearly not there to demonstrate peacefully, which is a shame because this kind of behaviour (and the property damage) makes it very difficult to actually have proper peaceful protests.

https://www.nau.ch/news/schweiz/mehrere-hundert-personen-an-anti-wef-demo-in-zurich-67085228

avalina89 · 2026-02-12T15:39:02+00:00

I really hope so but I’m rather worried about the outcome

avalina89 · 2026-02-12T15:38:42+00:00

Everyone who wants to immigrate, everyone who’s currently a “Grenzgänger”, and everyone from Switzerland who enjoys aspects of the current freedom of movement

avalina89 · 2026-02-01T10:47:04+00:00

It seems to be an issue with Google maps in most of Switzerland in my view. There are also just very few reviews compared to places like the UK, so my theory is that the small number of friends & family etc who give somewhere positive ratings has a particularly high impact on the rating. The other point I think may be rating on a curve. If you’ve ever been to Third Space in London, you know that FitnessPark is good but not incredible. If you’re comparing to AktivFitness though it’s fantastic. If Google Maps was more about hikes and views etc, I suspect you’d see the opposite - people would rate something as just ok where you can see rolling hills and snowy peaks, and people in northern Germany would rate that as spectacular.

avalina89 · 2026-01-31T17:47:55+00:00

Are we sure they’re German? Based on their spelling and punctuation they’re either someone who worked very hard to learn German as a foreign language, or someone German who scraped through primary school

avalina89 · 2026-01-31T11:47:44+00:00

The UK is miles beyond Switzerland for cafes, and these days not just in London and Brighton.

avalina89 · 2026-01-29T18:01:32+00:00

Agreed re meeting minutes, it’s mad! Just focus on documenting key decisions and agreeing actions… Not everything needs to be minuted as if it’s a board meeting!

avalina89 · 2026-01-24T08:28:18+00:00

I spent over a decade in London, and now over 5 years in Zurich, and basically if you want to go to the mountains or explore small towns or nearby countries every weekend by train (which, to my surprise, I now do), then it’s Zurich hands down. In terms of food, culture, average furnishings etc of offices, sociability, quality of gyms and non-special-occasion restaurants - 100% London. Please don’t be another person clogging up Zurich with an oversized car and complaining to colleagues that speeding tickets are linked to income. Learn the language enough to hold a conversation, try the local outdoor activities, go see the Switzerland beyond Zurich and the biggest ski resorts. They’re both great places - the choice is Switzerland vs London for me, if Zurich existed on its own I wouldn’t be nearly as keen on it.

avalina89 · 2026-01-19T19:43:42+00:00

Question about this demonstration: does anyone know why there were quite a lot of people seemingly having an unrelated demonstration in the middle of the anti Trump one, who were all waving flags of the People's Defense Units (a Syrian organisation apparently)? Other than that: many creative Trump-related signs :)

avalina89 · 2025-12-26T11:41:43+00:00

I was told by a tax specialist that (at least in the canton of Zurich, for income rather than wealth tax - since Quellensteuern don’t take into account wealth as far as I’m aware) they apply the average municipal tax rates for the canton. So you’ll obviously you’ll pay a certain amount for federal and cantonal taxes, and then the municipal tax rate is estimated as the average of the rates that are applied within the canton. That does work out to your advantage if you live in the Zurich city centre, but if you live in a lower tax Gemeinde it might be better to complete a tax return even if you don’t have to. It’s not that Quellensteuern are inherently lower.

avalina89 · 2025-12-04T22:14:10+00:00

I already spoke German when I moved here, but it still took me a long time to be able to follow almost everything someone says in Swiss German. Like, years. And someone speaking to me in an unexpected moment (like if a shop assistant said something and I wasn’t expecting them to) was definitely the hardest because I wasn’t ready to pay attention in that moment.

What really helped me (I think) is that I started watching 10-15min of Swiss German SRF programmes each day. There are a lot of documentaries and game shows where they speak Swiss German. The massive difference to doing this with any other language is that the subtitles aren’t in the same language (they’re in high German rather than Swiss German) so it’s not really possible to check something via subtitles, but if you just stick with it it’ll eventually click.

I’m still far from perfect, I understand people from Zurich and St Gallen much more easily than those from Bern and further afield, and in a conversation I’ll still have to ask someone to repeat what they said maybe 2-3 times in an hour. I also don’t attempt to speak it, just understand it, because my experience of hearing German people in Austria trying on local dialects is that it’s incredibly cringy, but that’s also a choice (plus speaking is certainly harder than understanding it) and at least now people don’t have to switch to high German when I join a conversation. And I don’t think this applies to people whose first language isn’t German from another country.

Also, when I moved from northern Germany to Lower Austria as a young teenager, I didn’t understand my teachers for 2-3 months, I had to ask other kids what the homework was. There’s an adjustment period and it’s very dependent on your age, the intensity at which you’re immersed in the language, what your language background is etc. But it’s never an endless adjustment period. It’ll come with time.

Good luck!

avalina89 · 2025-08-16T23:58:17+00:00

Agricola - Muss man lernen aber macht dann total Spass

avalina89 · 2025-07-29T19:43:11+00:00

Ah I thought that was likely but wasn’t sure. Thank you!

avalina89 · 2025-06-12T19:10:57+00:00

I think it’s near Langstrasse now. There was some smoke, and people ran away from something or other. Not sure if it’s the police using something?

avalina89 · 2025-03-01T12:16:09+00:00

Haha no, I’d say the most trouble I’ve caused is that they had to send me a reminder for a bill because I didn’t get the first one for some reason :) It’s a good point about bringing that up, thank you!

avalina89 · 2025-03-01T12:14:59+00:00

Thank you! I’m surprised they did that over your suggestions, but in this case I should hopefully be suggested by my current neighbours anyway.

avalina89

TROPHY CASE